Books

This list has been compiled as an aid to those of you interested in exploring Irish involvement in the American Civil War and is the most comprehensive such bibliography available. The majority of books below pertain directly to Irish involvement in the war, while some have been included as broader works which are of relevance to the Irish experience. The main categories are Regimental & Brigade Histories, Biography, Edited/Personal Accounts and General Works. Within these groups the books are listed alphabetically by author. The growing number of electronically scanned books on the internet have allowed a number of the titles to be linked directly to online versions, so for these you are just one click away from finding out more! The list will be updated regularly, and if you have any additions or suggestions regarding it please drop me a line.

Regimental & Brigade Histories

Beller, Susan Provost 1998. Never Were Men So Brave: The Irish Brigade during the Civil War

Bilby, Joseph G. and O’Neill, Stephen (eds.) 1997. My Sons Were Faithful and they Fought: The Irish Brigade At Antietam: An Anthology

Bilby, Joseph G. 1995. Remember Fontenoy: The 69th New York and the Irish Brigade in the Civil War

Bilby, Joseph G. 2001. The Irish Brigade in the Civil War: The 69th New York and Other Irish Regiments of the Army of the Potomac

Boyle, Frank 1996. A Party of Mad Fellows: The Story of the Irish Regiments in the Army of the Potomac

Many thanks for sending these on- I am also working up an article list which I hope to add over coming months within which I will include the papers, and I will add those books to the current page with an acknowledgement. The Irish Sword does have a great many good papers on the war, the summer 2002 volume is a great edition fully dedicated to it- it would be nice to see another one at some point over the years of the 150th anniversaries.

Hi, Damian – nice work with the Facebook, blog, and Flickr sites. I’m still feeling my way into the newer social networking and need to get up to speed. The web site for my book on Captain John Lonergan is a sad piece of work that should be greatly improved in the near future. I stuck a couple of comments on Flickr and Facebook before I found this option on writing you directly. I’m the chair of the events committee for the Vermont Sesquicentennial Commission and would be pleased to hook you up with our efforts. I’ll make sure to give Lonergan his just dues in the commemoration events. Hope to swap emails with you soon and will send you the particulars on the biography, available at this time only through me. I’m looking for a distributor in Ireland so that I can print copies there since it is prohibitively expensive to mail them. I did send half a dozen copies to Carrick to friends that I worked with on the monument; one is in the public library.
Regards, Bill

Stumbled on your blog thanks to the CWPT news. Glad to see it.
Conway’s “While the Banshee Cried” is actually a novel in the John Jakes style – the Irish Brigade actually doesn’t figure in it as much as I expected it would. Noonan’s “Forty Rounds” turned out to be a semi-fictional account of the author’s g-grandfather rather than the 90th IL. Might classify them under “Other.”
For an add-on, “Strong in Their Patriotic Devotion: Connecticut’s Irish in the Civil War” by Neil Hogan, 72pp, 2003, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society. Had to get this one thru the Society.
Joe Maghe mentioned “The Irish Sword”; they did a special “Ireland and the ACW” issue in summer 2002 (Vol XXIII no. 91)

Hi Dennis,
Many thanks for the contributions, I have updated the list accordingly. I agree the semi-fiction would do better in the ‘other’ category. I intend to add a page on papers and journal articles in the future which will include all the Irish Sword articles- aside from the excellent dedicated 2002 edition there have been a number of good papers in it down through the years. As always, I have added your name to the acknowledgements at the end of the page!

Hi, Damian!
I love your site! It is great to get info regarding the Irish in the Civil War.
I have another book for your list. Its “THE FIGHTING 69TH: A History by
Richard Demeter. It was published in 2002 by Cranford Press.
Keep up the great work!!!

Many thanks, and thanks for the contribution! Am I right in saying though that this book just covers the 69th’s post 9/11 service? if it does cover the Civil War as well though I will definitely include it!

Damian,
This is a terrific book. The first two chapters thoroughly cover the formation of the brigade and the Civil War. It encompasses 196 pages. The rest of the book covers the 69th in Mexico in 1916, WWI and WWII. The book is 302 pages of reading with pages 303-382 containing extensive Chapter notes, footnotes, bibliography and index. It is really a fabulous book and, I would consider, a “must have” regarding the history of the Irish Brigade and the Irish in America.